These 7 Unexplained Natural Phenomena In Iowa Will Baffle You

Unexplained natural phenomena have been perplexing humans since the dawn of time. Iowa is home to its own share of unexplained natural phenomena. From Bigfoot sightings to spook lights to UFO activity, here are 7 unexplained phenomena that will leave you wondering.

Ball lightning is a ball of lightning that occurs during thunderstorms. The crazy thing is that lightning balls can move through solid material, like blocks of metal, wood and even buildings. They are short-lived and rare, usually lasting only around a minute, and they are accompanied by a strong odor of sulfur. Ball lightning appearances have been reported at several locations around Iowa.

In 1978, the residents of Ottosen, reported strange sights and sounds like a high-pitched whistle and screams in the nearby forest. Soon, cats and dogs were found dead and mutilated. Many citizens of the town even reported seeing a giant, hairy, man-like creature wandering around town, and glowing red eyes outside their windows.

Iowa is no stranger to alleged UFO sightings. From amber, oval-shaped lights in the sky to flashing bright lights to five spheres moving in formation, there have been hundreds of first-hand accounts. More specifically, pilot Andy Danzinger reported seeing a huge white disk-shaped object that “morphed” into a large red ball in 1989 during a flight from Kansas City, Missouri to Waterloo, Iowa.

In 1903, several citizens of Van Meter reported seeing a half-human, half-animal creature, with enormous wings flying around town. Flying at high speeds with a terrible stench, it shot blinding light from its horned head. The citizens tried to shoot it, but the it wasn’t affected. The creature terrorized the town for several days until a group of citizens chased it into a nearby mine, and it was never seen again.

In the late 1870s, just south of the Catholic community of St. Mary’s, a woman named Mrs. Wallace burned to death in her home. Ever since her death, there has been a glowing red and orange fireball skirting the perimeter of the farm. Orval Berning, a local farmer, saw the light along the fence line as he was walking home. He also saw the light from his farmhouse window, about a mile away. In 1947, a man named Roy Whitehead claimed to hear a voice coming from the light as it hovered above the road.

Crop circles are a pattern that is created by flattening a crop. While they’ve generally been attributed to human creation, there have been reports of crop circles appearing due to unknown origins. In 2004 in Eagle Grove, Mike and Brenda Trevis’s dogs started going crazy barking for about 20 minutes around midnight. They found about a dozen crop circles in their oat field the next day, and their barking dogs suddenly made sense. They have no idea how the crop circles got there. There were no tracks leading into the field, and there was no unusual weather to explain them, either.